Remembering the Loneliness
by QueenoftheLab96
Summary: A hard case for Brennan. She sees herself in the fifteen year old foster child killed by her foster father. BB
1. Chapter 1

**AN: so, this is my first story, it took me quite a long time to get everything right. Thanks to OtterPotter for all your help.**

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Bones.**

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This had been a particularly hard case for her. As hard as she tried, she knew she wasn't doing a very good job at emotional detachment. She wasn't capable of maintaining the withdrawn façade she usually used when it came to being around other people. She knew everyone else at the lab could see how badly it was affecting her, and much to her relief, offered a blind eye to her vulnerability. They pretended for her sake that they did not notice her wincing at the painful memories the victim's story brought back up while studying the young girl's remains. All the grad students and lab techs acted as though nothing happened. But Booth, Angela, Cam, Hodgins and Sweets were a different story.

She decided to work late, once again as she had for the past week. Brennan had refused to leave the girl's remains unsupervised or unaccompanied, although she had often chastised herself at the lack of logic in sitting next to a dead person's bones night after night. She had been able to discover cause of death on the second day. On the third day Booth had zeroed in on their major suspects- the foster father and one of the girl's class mates- and had gotten a very disturbing statement from the foster father. By the fifth day the squints had racked up enough evidence to dismiss one of their suspects and get a warrant for the other one. After Booth had finished questioning the girl's foster father, Brennan had given the man a piece of her mind. That is when everyone saw how much it really had affected her.

"It is people like you that are destroying our society!" she yelled at John Claudel, her face merely inches from his. The rage burning in her light blue eyes was enough to make Booth be thankful her fury was directed to the man he had just finished questioning. "People that indulge in making others fear them, people who think nothing on the less fortunate. What did Emma ever do to deserve the beating? What did she do to deserve the abuse she got from you? The only thing she did to get that was not dying in the car crash that killed the rest of her family! You knew she did not like driving at night, yet you took her after your wife had gone to sleep! You knew she did not like being with your friends, yet you took her to see them, when you knew all of you were going to get drunk, and do drugs. Emma was a smart young woman, she was shy, she was scared, and vulnerable. You took advantage of that. While your wife really cared for the poor child, you only cared of taking advantage of her. You made her feel comfortable, like she could trust you. Then you beat her. She didn't say anything for fear you might beat her worse, and for fear of being taken away from your wife, someone who really cared for her, who loved her and understood her in a way no one else could after the death of her parents." She turned to Booth. "She withdrew herself, Booth. She surrounded herself with animals, and books and knowledge. Pretty much like I did following my parent's disappearance. I remember myself asking, after Russ left me, if he had done so, because I had sort of abandoned him. I had isolated myself. I read all the time. I rejected everyone. The few friends I had Left me. I became interested in death, and my only friend was the janitor, all throughout high school. I was made fun of, people also made fun of Emma Marie." She finished, her voice cracking, and tears streaking her pain filled face.

"Come on, Bones," he said standing up, and supporting a shaken-up Dr. Brennan and leading her out of the interrogation room. "Let's get some coffee, and maybe we can talk…" he finished uncertainly, his eyes searching her face. He led her towards his office with one hand protectively around her tensed shoulders.

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**RR Please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: i'm sorry it took so long to update. I re-wrote it about 3 times. I really will try to update the story again before the 26th, as the chances of updating after that are quite slim to be truthful. so... enjoy!**

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Once in the safety of his office, with the door shut closed behind them he steered towards the two chairs in front of his desk. He helped her into the one nearest to the window. He then settled himself in the one next to hers. "She was missing for a whole week, before her body was discovered." He couldn't help but notice the uncharacteristic tinge of sadness in her voice." Lucy Claudel believed her husband's runaway story. She knew Emma was not a very happy child, and understood her need to get away for a while. But then on the third day, after waiting for her to come back, and after searching for her, she finally decided to call in and report her missing. I don't get why she waited for so long to call in. booth, you tell me, if you woke up one morning, and Parker wasn't there wouldn't you call the cops immediately?" she asked with tears running freely down her face.

"Well, of course I would call the cops right away, but it was her husband telling her. She had no idea whatsoever about the beatings she received. And of course, with Emma in the Lacrosse team, it was easy for her to pass the bruises off as lacrosse injuries so as to not have to tell on John Claudel. She had no reason to suspect her husband." Booth explained, "Her husband gave no signs of having done anything, which is why he denied having anything to do with Emma Marie's corpse when it was found in his car's trunk. If Rebecca told me that Parker had gone missing I would immediately turn to her neighbors or people that often see him, not her, because I trust her to take care of him."

"I see. So you would trust the person with the best relationship with Parker, namely Rebecca, even though that person might have had something to do with the child's death or disappearance." She conceded, trying to understand his reasoning.

"I guess you could call it one of my gut instincts." He put in trying to be helpful. "You have admitted that my gut feelings are hardly ever wrong. And you know I live to protect the people I care about. You may call it alpha-male instincts, but I call them my gut-instincts. I take care of the ones I care about. And I trust people to take care of them while I can't. In this case it would be Rebecca whom I trust to take care of Parker when I'm not there to be with him."

"But what if the person with the seemingly best relationship with the victim is really the one they are in the most danger with?" she asked him trying to find a flaw in his reasoning.

"You've met Rebecca. She'd never do anything to hurt Parker. She wouldn't go out with anyone that posed a threat to him. And you know I would do anything for him. And maybe, yes, the person with the seemingly best relationship can be the one that puts the 'victim' in more danger, or the one that causes the victim the most pain." He said as he realized that she was talking of her own past as well as Emma Marie's.

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**A/N: okay, so that was the second chapter. please leave a review. (be nice. it's only my second chapter...)**


	3. Chapter 3

**sorry it took me so long to update. Um, I was busy. Last day of school, friends (phalanges!), um, packing for the trip and family. seally: thanks for helping me... :D i really apreciate it. **

**plwease enjoy! it is a short chapter...**

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"No one is going to hurt her anymore." He spoke softly into her ear. He pulled her into a tight embrace. "And you know no one will ever even dare hurt you while I'm around." He assured her in his strong, yet soothing voice. He pulled her slender frame closer to his body. Her head was cradled in the crook of his neck, and her arms were wound tightly around his torso.

"Do you think, that now that she's, um, dead…" she whispered hesitantly, she had no idea what she was going to ask him. She was sure that even Booth, the only person that had ever dared contradict her logic, would think what she was about to ask him was stupidly irrational.

"What do I think, about what, Bones?" he urged her to continue.

"It's irrational, Booth" she spoke into his jacket.

"I want to hear what you've got to say." She took a small step back and turned her face away, focusing on the bobble head he'd brought back from England after their trip a little more than a year earlier

"Never mind Boot…" she was cut off. He grabbed her face in his hands and turned her to face him.

"Have I made fun of anything you've ever said to me?"

"No, but,"

"But nothing. I want to hear what you've got to say."

"Fine. Do you think Emma Marie will be mourned?" she scowled at him. "Although I do not believe that people continue 'living spiritually' after their bodies die, or whatever you want to call it, I think it is important to honor the dead, or to give them back the dignity they lost a human beings when they were mutilated, etc" she looked at him trying to read what was going on in his mind. "I want to know, if our findings will help the people that mocked her, and bullied her see her 'in a whole different light', metaphorically speaking, of course."

He didn't know how to answer. He wanted to tell her that her findings had helped her community see her in a different way after they found out what had happened to her, but he wasn't sure it would be that way. "I really wish people will see her differently. We may not be able to change all of their minds, but we have enough evidence against him to have him put away for life."

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"Bones, just get the plates and drinks, I'll clear the coffee table and all that." he called from the living room. He scooped up her case notes and piled them up neatly on her desk. He really did not want to remind her of the case, she would only get upset and she would probably start to close down on him.

"I remember, during high school people always thought I was strange. I mean, as a younger child I had always been very bright, and I was a bit socially awkward. I didn't really do well with other people my age, and I wasn't all that athletic, which really set me apart from my other classmates, you know." She told him as she set down two beers on the coffee table, and passed him a plate and a set of chopsticks. "But, I had a few friends, and I joined some extracurricular activities in order to bond better with other people my age, and I was successful for a few years before my parents disappeared, but I realized that as I grew older, more, and moiré people thought of me as strange, so by the freshman year in high school, most of my friends had moved on, found new interests and so forth. I was depressed. Russ worried a lot. So did my parents, but then they vanished, so…"

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**i HOPE YOU LIKED IT! RR! I wish you all a wonderful summer vacation. and don't forget to watch the season premier in september... :D**

**seally thx for your ideas... my PHALANGIAL FRIEND**


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